Reach for the Top 2009

May 23, 2010

EDIT on November 3, 2016: The videos are no longer on TVO’s
website (and have not been for some number of years). I do not have copies
of the videos, and am not aware of any other online version. If you are able to
locate these videos, feel free to contact me.

I apologize for the inconvenience.

The original post below is left as-is for posterity.

Reach for the Top was one of the activities I was very involved with, in high school. For those who haven’t heard of Reach, it’s a Canadian high school trivia contest that’s similar to almost, but not quite, entirely unlike?Jeopardy! and quizbowl. Reach emphasizes fast buzzing, quick recall, and a breadth of knowledge, which makes it quite dramatic and appropriate for TV. In fact, Reach was originally a TV show in the 1960’s, with Alex Trebek (yes, Alex Trebek of Jeopardy!) hosting for a few years. Reach has had periods of being on and off TV; as of 2010, Reach is no longer on TV.

My high school, London Central Secondary School, is relatively new to Reach, but has enjoyed much success: in 2006 we finished 4th at provincials, in 2007 we won both provincials and nationals, in 2008 we came 5th at provincials, and in 2009 we won provincials and nationals again. In fact, as of writing, only six other schools in Reach history can claim to have won two national championships.

In 2007, I was co-captain of the junior team, so I wasn’t on the team that won provincials and nationals. But the entire team graduated that year, so when the captain, other teammates, new players, and I moved to the senior team in 2008, we were an all-new team. We were quite happy to finish fifth, as it made us optimistic for 2009. The captain and I would be back, and we would improve, and we felt that our chances next year would be excellent.

2009 came, and it was a very exciting season. There were many close games, and we had stretches of bad luck. But we also had stretches of good luck, because we exceeded all our expectations by winning provincials – and nationals.

Now, the point of this post is not to discuss the tournaments or games. They happened a year ago. What is relevant now is that the entire 2009 Reach for the Top season has been posted online. So this is a post about that, especially since their website is a little disorganized. It’s probably also worth noting that this may be the last season of Reach for a number of years.